Barbara Cooley's Paris Journal 2008

Paris Journal 2008

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Yesterday evening, we went out for a stroll. Our intent was, if possible, to join some people on the Esplanade des Invalides at about 8:30PM. Included in the group was Bob S., one of the loyal readers of this journal.

We never found them. I was wearing my black Obama t-shirt, in part so that Bob S. could recognize us. We made a big loop through the Esplanade, walking slowly through the people gathered there on the lawn. Whenever someone noticed by Obama shirt and said “Obama!”, I went up to them and gave a friendly fist bump and thumbs up. This was great fun.

I’ve had nothing but positive reactions from people here when I wear this shirt or my Obama button. This would include French people and Americans. I did get one negative look from a man on a café terrace on the Avenue du Suffren, and he sure looked like a far-right-wing conservative American to me. It could be that he always looks negative, however.

After walking around for a couple hours in the gathering crowds, we went home in time to watch the fireworks from our apartment. It was a very nice show. This is the preferred place for us to watch the fireworks if we have no guests. Two of us can comfortably fit in front of the kitchen window to watch. If there are more than two of us, it is better for us to go out into the mob to watch.

This morning we went to the Thomas Cook Agency, where we’ve bought international train tickets before, to buy train tickets to visit our friends in Germany. Now, however, the Agency cannot sell train tickets to Germany anymore, because the French national train company, SNCF, is selling them.

On our way home, we noticed that the SNCF boutique was crowded with waiting customers, so we decided to try to buy the tickets online. When I tried to do that a few years ago, the system was clunky and non-functional, and we had to go to the SNCF boutique, which is always a thoroughly French, bureaucratic and time-consuming experience.

But now, it seems, SNCF has its online act together. The transaction worked smoothly, and we should have free delivery of the tickets to our apartment by mail in about four days. Stay tuned.

We bought newspapers when we were out this morning, and were very dismayed to see the article about the New Yorker’s offensive cover this week. I just finished writing an e-mail to the magazine to tell them to cancel our subscription entirely. I copied several Obama campaign people on my e-mail message. Here’s the message I sent:

“We had placed our subscription to the New Yorker on hold while we are in Europe for the summer. Now, however, since we've seen the offensive cover you published for this coming week (it was featured in the International Herald Tribune today) we must insist that you cancel our subscription entirely.

“You have not only offended the Obamas, you've offended all of us who support them. Shame on you. Even if your intent was satire, the cover will be immediately perceived as associating the Obamas with terrorism and is thus slander.”

When we read the French newspaper, we often catch up on the crime news. I am always surprised by how many crimes are committed with guns here in France.

Even when guns are not involved, some of the crimes can be frighteningly violent. For example, in recent months, gangs have started attacking taxi cabs who are stopped in traffic jams in the A1 tunnel that takes traffic from the Charles de Gaulle airport in towards the city. The gangsters arrive in the tunnel via motorscooters, slipping easily between lanes of cars. They are armed with bricks or baseball bats. They break the taxi windows, and rob the driver and passengers inside. The taxis have no way of escaping, with the traffic jams.

I am sure that the French police will get this problem under control relatively quickly. But I recall that we, too, were stuck in this traffic jam in the tunnel when Jean-Pierre was taking us from the airport into Paris. I hardly noticed the delay because we were enjoying our conversation with Jean-Pierre, and I didn’t know about this crime problem at that time. This terrible thing could have happened to us.

And one evening when we were walking from the 10^th, down through the 2^nd, then the 1^st, there was evidently a 60-something year old man nearby in the 4^th who was shooting at employees in a music store, for no apparent reason. It turns out the man was a patient at a Paris mental hospital. He had either escaped or been given a leave. He had a history of violent crimes. How did he get out or why was he let out? How did he manage to get a gun? These questions went unanswered in the newspaper.

At 6PM in the evening, if Tom and I were walking through the 4^th, and if we spotted a music store, we almost surely would have gone in to look around. Tom says that if he saw a fellow 60-something year old man in a music store in Paris, he might well have tried to strike up a friendly conversation. Scary.

But scary or not, we just cannot allow those things to bother us. We just go on, walking and walking through Paris.

One of my favorite walks closer to home in the 15^th is down the rue St. Charles. This is a shopping street that caters to people who really live here. It has the kind of stores that the rue du Commerce (just around the corner from our apartment) used to have. Now the rue du Commerce has a lot of formula retail, with shops that you can find anywhere – Gap, for example.

Most of the mom-and-pop owned businesses on the rue du Commerce are gone. But the rue St. Charles still has them. The rue St. Charles is wider than the rue du Commerce, and it has more space for ambling on the sidewalk. Mature shade trees make it particularly pleasant in the summer. And the street takes us to the Parc Andre Citroen, which we enjoy very much.

The rue St. Charles has butchers, bakers, cheese mongers, charcuterieurs, inexpensive clothing stores, affordable shoe stores, and Pakistani’s who sell deeply discounted household items of all sorts.

We were walking down the rue St. Charles the other day to go to the Parc Andre Citroen, and we passed one of the Pakistani shops where many items had been placed out on the sidewalk for display.

After passing by, I realized that I had just seen something I really needed: slippers. I grabbed Tom’s arm and we doubled back to the shop. The slippers were Chinese knock-offs, good imitations of Deerfoams, with soft stretchy terry cloth and soft leather soles, and foam cushioning between the soles and the lining. This is just the kind of thing feet need after walking all day on hard pavement and cobblestones.

The price was a very reasonable €5.50, tax included. That’s about $8.64. I wasn’t sure about the European size, but the Pakistani man didn’t hesitate to tell me I should try the slippers on. He swiftly cleared items from the top of a stool so I could do so comfortably. There was no French hesitation about allowing me to remove the slippers from the package when there was no guarantee that I would be buying them. This Pakistani businessman was really interested in selling, and he would remove all barriers to the transaction rather than introduce barriers as some Paris shopkeepers like to do.

A European size 40 is, evidently, a US size 9 in women’s shoes.

I bought the slippers and we were on our way in no time at all.

I do prefer the rue St. Charles, but I also buy things once in a while on the rue du Commerce. Every summer, Tom and I buy at least one watch in Paris, either at a Swatch store or a Louis Pion shop. This month, I bought a watch at the Louis Pion shop near us, on the rue du Commerce. The young woman who sold me the watch (for €19) started to painstakingly explain the 2-year warranty to me, but I smiled and told her that we buy at least one watch there every year, from that shop (last year, we bought three or four, I think).

My favorite wine shop is also on the rue du Commerce. On the 13^th, I went to buy wine there and found the shop closed. A note on the front door explained that the closure is due to water damage! The store remains closed today. I feel so sorry for madame and monsieur at the wine shop, because this is right about the time they go on vacation. I hope this does not ruin the vacation for them.

Unlike many shopkeepers, madame and monsieur at the wine shop do not close up when they leave on vacation. Instead, they hire a couple young people to run the place while they are gone. I’ve always appreciated that extra effort on their part; they do not want their customers to have to go shopping elsewhere.

We often buy newspapers at the newsstand across from the wine shop. The price of a copy of the International Herald Tribune at a newsstand is a ridiculous €2.50, which is about $4! To save a little money, I just started a 16-week subscription.

Tom just read in the that the Euro is overvalued by 30 percent, according to a California firm. That sounds about right. People wonder how we’re coping with the high Euro. It isn’t pleasant, but it isn’t that bad for us because we are not big shoppers, and we are eating out less often anyway.

And the prices at Ed, the discount grocery on our street, are very reasonable. In fact, if the Euro and Dollar had parity, the prices at Ed would be a steal.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008